Between consumer demands, shrinking deadlines, getting goods to market, rising costs, and shifting trade policies – the job of a retailer is becoming increasingly challenging. But it doesn’t have to be an impossible task. If you haven’t done it yet, it’s time to make the switch to a digital supply chain technology solution that can help you move products to market faster, reduce operating costs, and improve profitability, all while lowering brand risk.

Our white paper, The Top 6 Global Supply Chain Expectations for 2019, also delves into some of these concerns and potential growth areas and outlines how a digital solution can combat volatility in both the market and with government regulations. Amber Road’s global trade management software solutions work to streamline your value chain and mitigate risks allowing your organization to focus on forward growth:

Gain real-time visibility, enabling you to respond proactively to disruptions

Global trade has never been as ubiquitous as it is today. Technology of all kinds – from transportation tech like containerization, cargo aircraft, and supermax vessels all the way to the digital global e-commerce marketplace – facilitates an unprecedented flow of products around the world. At the same time, tariff and sanction shifts have become the main enemy of the supply chain manager, who relies on consistency and certainty to plan and execute global trade.

Next week's webinar on February 14 seeks to answer the question: How can we leverage technology to overcome emerging and enduring global supply chain management risks? Amber Road and AAEI conducted a survey of supply chain professionals involved with global trade in order to gain a clearer picture of the primary challenges facing the community, and how their companies are using technology to address these challenges.

Supply chains are running at full steam in 2019 as some economies boom, while others take hits from obstacles to open commerce and trade. From protectionist trade policies to ever-increasing costs to product recall challenges, Amber Road’s subject-matter experts provide some revolutionary best practices in a range of industry publications to help companies keep the wheels of trade moving.

Across the globe, experts in all industries seem to agree on one assessment: The Internet of Things (IoT) revolution is just beginning. Connecting the unconnected through software that cleans, standardizes and transmits huge amounts of data not only provides companies visibility into the truth about their business operations but is more accessible than ever!

In Talking Logistic’s most recent video and podcast, Adrian Gonzalez interviews our very own SVP of Marketing and Business Development, Ty Bordner to discuss emerging technologies and the potential they could have to transform the way that we do business, specifically within a global supply chain. Ty and Adrian cover a wide variety of technologies and topics such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT). Find out how companies could integrate these technologies into their supply chains and what the future of the global supply chain might hold by watching the video below:

A great supply chain partner is one who knows exactly what ingredients a company needs to make their operations successful — and those that can be skipped. As a software provider, it’s critical that the functionality and tools support the marketplace, across all industries and company size. To highlight companies that possess these important characteristics, SupplyChainBrain has announced the 100 Great Supply Chain Partners of 2018 and Amber Road has emerged as one of those highly-valued companies.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has long been an advocate of transparency and risk reduction in global supply chains through the Customs-Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT), a voluntary cargo security program for global transactions. Since its inception in 2002, C-TPAT has been the basis of how the government manages and monitors cargo security.

The security threats the nation faced in 2002 are vastly different from today’s security and terrorism concerns. Each day brings a new cargo security concern based on more complex supply chains, and greater risk of data breaches and cyber-attacks. Changing players in company supply chains can also impact cargo security and put companies at risk.

To address today’s risk, CBP has released a more comprehensive cargo security program, with the support of the trade, to mirror the threats now prevalent in global supply chains. The newly released Minimum-Security Criteria (MSC) replace the previous Minimum-Security Guidelines (MSG), changing the landscape of the program for current members, and future volunteers to the program.

Imagine you're planning a potluck. Each friend is assigned to bring their specialty - a tasty homemade dish, the centerpiece honeybaked ham, their secret-recipe apple pie - and you, the host, need to coordinate it all. Thing is, one of your friends is in Vietnam. The other is on a cargo ship in the North Pacific. And the only tools you have at your disposal are a fax machine and an Excel spreadsheet that no one else can see. How is your potluck going to be a success?

Of course, that's not how anyone plans a party these days. Individuals can easily communicate and collaborate across borders to share plans and ideas instantly. But creating a digital model for your company's global supply chain is a lot more complex than simply downloading Venmo. You'll need to transform your entire ecosystem and technology stack - no simple task.

Who should be included in your new digital model of your supply chain, what will they contribute and how will that be shared and consumed? What are the benefits?

It's just like a potluck, only a lot bigger. And more complex.

Join ARC Advisory Group and Amber Road for a webinar to discover how you can begin to build a truly digital supply chain.

Last week, international shippers and supply chain experts gathered in Nashville for the CSCMP EDGE Conference to share cutting-edge supply chain solutions and best practices. Top talent from Nike, IBM and Amazon started off the event by exploring what the future of supply chain may look like - and how top brands are approaching their own value chains.

So, what does the future hold for your international supply chain?

An overarching theme this year was the need for true, real-time supply chain visibility, and how to achieve that visibility through some truly transformational technologies like Internet of Things/ IoT, blockchain, and the move to digital platforms. Shippers know they need to adjust to the complexity of today's global trade landscape and are finding innovative ways to automate and digitize their supply chains.

Despite store closures, sluggish sales, and demanding consumers, at least 50 of the most profitable
retailers still managed to keep growth going. Their success is in large part related to the technology they use to keep their supply chains running at optimal performance and beat the competition in a tough marketplace. Industry resource
Apparel magazine has released its annual “Top 50 Report,” not just listing the most profitable US apparel companies, but shedding light onto how they came out swinging in 2018, despite the industry challenges they faced.

In order to hold a position on this list, retail companies need to exceed $100 million in sales, even though most reach into the billions. As publicly traded US companies, these organizations have demonstrated profit margin increases over the last year, grading them in order of these strides in revenue gains.

Amber Road is proud to congratulate 10 of the Top 50 companies who we also have the honor to serve as customers. These are the companies on this year’s Apparel Top 50 list that are customers leveraging Amber Road’s
software solutions for
supply chain collaboration and execution:

Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman)

Nike

Cintas

PVH

VF Corp

Chico’s

Ralph Lauren

Vera Bradley

TJX

L Brands

“Some of these notable names have been long-time customers. The year-over-year performance of these winners is impressive, and we believe software solutions do play a hand in their achievements,” said Cheryl Layne, Customer Success Director for Amber Road. “We have always maintained a customer base of growing apparel and footwear companies and we congratulation them for their hard work.”

When asked about challenges, Robert Wallstrom, CEO of Vera Bradley replied: “Over the last few years, retail has been going through a very disruptive cycle, and the industry has changed forever. Technology has revolutionized retail: the e-commerce channel has become the primary growth engine; marketing has transformed to a ‘digital-first’ strategy; the physical store has moved from a place of purchase to a place of brand experience; and artificial intelligence is becoming the core engine to drive change faster than anyone could have previously imagined.” You can read the entire Apparel article here.

It’s apparent these companies understand the business value of automating and optimizing their supply chain execution operations for greater visibility, agility and lowered risk, while reducing sourcing costs across the board. To do it right, organizations need to take a holistic, integrated approach that encompasses every phase in the lifecycle. Amber Road offers companies solutions across the entire supply chain. To learn more about today’s global trade management solutions, click on the download below from Aberdeen Group.